Chigasaki is largely a bedroom community for Tokyo and Yokohama, and has been noted as a seaside resort community since the Meiji period. Tourism and summer leisure activities remain important to the local economy.

The shoreline from Chigasaki to Kamakura is called the "Shōnan area". A popular swimming destination, Chigasaki is well known as the birthplace of Japanese surfing. A shop called "Goddess," located only about 20 meters from the shoreline, claims to be the first surfboard shop in Japan. Bicycles with metal fittings for holding surfboards are prominent in the area. A section of the beach in Chigasaki is called "Southern Beach," inspired by the Southern All Stars, a famous J-Pop singing group whose lead vocalist Keisuke Kuwata hails from Chigasaki. The symbol of Southern Beach is Eboshi-iwa, a large hat-shaped rock that is visible from the coast.

Southern Beach monument known as "Southern C"

Chigasaki is also famous for being the center of Japanese Hawaiian culture with many tropical and Hawaiian stores located mainly in the southern side of the town. Fridays in Chigasaki was called "Aloha Friday" in which consumers were able to have discounts in many stores and taxis. There are many crows in Chigasaki. They tend to be extremely noisy on garbage collection days. Occasionally they attack people who inadvertently approach too near to nests. Chigasaki is also somewhat famous for "shonan gumo", which is a type of large spider with enormously long legs that runs incredibly fast and is virtually impossible to kill. They are apparently harmless to people, but look real scary.